Remaking the Universe

While physicists attempt to understand the universe in their own way, Christian Gonzenbach draws on his experience as an artist-in-residence in the lab of Martin Pohl (University of Geneva, CERN) to do so with experiments and sculptures using objects from everyday life.

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While physicists attempt to understand the universe in their own way, Christian Gonzenbach draws on his experience as an artist-in-residence in the lab of Martin Pohl (University of Geneva, CERN) to do so with experiments and sculptures using objects from everyday life. This event is held in conjunction with the Think Art – Act Science exhibition.

Together, Pohl and Gonzenbach recently constructed a Fly-o-tron, a device to accelerate flies. The device will be shown in public for the first time and the public will be able to assist in its first live performance.

The San Francisco installation of Think Art – Act Science is made possible by Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Arts Council and is a project of the U.S.-wide program ThinkSwiss-Brainstorm the Future. As a leading country in science, research, and technology, Switzerland is working with its American counterparts to address key global topics such as sustainability to better understand trends and arrive at solutions.

Bay Area Science Festival

From October 29th to November 6th, the Bay Area will come alive with over 100 science and technology activities – lectures, debates, exhibitions, concerts, plays, workshops, and more. This ambitious collaborative public education initiative brings together leading academic, scientific, corporate, and non-profit institutions to showcase the region as an international leader in innovation. Science happens all around us and directly impacts our daily lives – are you ready to unleash your inner scientist? Learn more. #basf11

Bios

Christian Gonzenbach

Christian Gonzenbach is an experimenter and an explorer at the edge between the normal and the bizarre. It is the unexpected, the little weird thing, that the artist focuses on. Hence, he has created installations in which a landscape is made out of corn flakes, a video in which all the people are pickles that play soccer, go for a dance or a boxing match, etc. His works look familiar but always disorient the viewer.

Martin Pohl

Martin Pohl is an experimental physicist who has worked on major particle physics experiments at particle accelerators for 35 years, exploring the structure of matter, elementary forces, space, and time. He also contributes to space-borne experiments measuring cosmic particles to investigate their nature as well as their sources. He is interested in the contributions of science to culture and its interaction with other cultural activities. “A major point of contact between fundamental physics and the arts ought to be that neither scientists not artists should ever expect anything but the unexpected,” he says.